Chapter 1357: The Lin Family

Maybe Sienna simply had not seen any reason to tell either of them, but there was something else she had kept to herself while Melissa and Dravenna sat there enjoying the first real relief they had felt in days and Dravenna still taken aback by the new revelations of Melissa—

—but the truth was:

The Lin Family had arrived.

Phei’s maternal family had touched Paradise Island that very night without Dravenna or Melissa knowing and certainly without Phei knowing while he remained somewhere inside the Primordial Frozen Zone. His maternal grandmother had come, along with his uncles, his aunts and the Twins, bringing a considerable portion of his mother’s family onto Paradise Island at once after years in which their absence had become almost as noticeable as their name after the death of their daughter.

Perhaps Sienna had not mentioned them because, from her perspective, there had been little reason to—

—The Lins had not stayed long enough for their arrival to become an event on the island.

They had barely touched Paradise before space folded around the entire group and carried them directly to Japan, where Chaos had already been waiting for them.

That, to Sienna, was simply another part of the plan finally moving.

With the Lin Family Matriarch here and Chaos herself already waiting in Japan, things that had remained frozen for far too long were beginning to move at last. Considering the kind of power gathered around those two women, that movement was about to become extremely unpleasant for the Heavenchilds and the Maxtons.

There was also the Coffer.

Chaos had it now.

More importantly, she had already opened it.

Phei had done the hardest part when he tore through the ancient seals that could’ve required Chaos to use a tiny bit of her power which wouldn’t that nice considering the restrictions, and whatever seals that remained afterward had evidently not been enough to stop Chaos. That meant the Tears were finally in their hands, and one particular thing that had remained impossible for far too long could finally happen.

It was time to wake a certain sleeping beauty from her ice cube of a bed<anno data-annotation-id="3aa95e8f-6931-6b5a-e43b-017c95ae9419" data-title=".">.¹</anno>

Sienna knew far more about what that meant than either Melissa or Dravenna, yet nothing in her expression suggested she felt any need to explain it now. Some things had waited long enough that another day or two hardly mattered, and with the pieces finally arriving where they needed to be, there was little reason to disturb the process.

Elsewhere, however, the arrival of the Lin Family had already disturbed quite enough.

The hall where the Heavenchilds and Maxtons had gathered felt less like the meeting place of two allied families and more like somewhere an alliance had come to die slowly.

Nobody had arranged the seats into opposing sides, yet that was exactly what had happened—

Heavenchilds occupied one portion of the enormous hall, while the Maxtons had naturally gravitated toward another. The division might have seemed meaningless at first glance, but the distance between them felt larger than the room itself after centuries of old resentment suddenly lost the promise that had kept everyone swallowing it.

The Coffer had been that promise.

No matter what one family did, no matter whose mistake had to be tolerated or which secret had to be buried, both sides had always known what waited at the end:

Once the Coffer was finally secured, there would be enough inside for everyone to receive what generations before them had spent their lives preparing to obtain.

Now the Coffer was gone.

The Chained were gone.

The elves had disappeared and the seven World Transcendent guards were dead.

Danton had disappeared and so had Danny!

And now the Lin Family had arrived on Paradise Island.

The two families had barely recovered from one disaster before a new blade appeared above their necks, and this one carried the name Lin. The threat felt like a guillotine so impossibly sharp that it did not even need to descend.

—Its presence alone was enough to strike fear to everyone beneath it to imagine their heads already separated from their shoulders.

The Ryujin Tiamat family had always been dangerous; although they’d never know their power’s true depths, but the Lin Family inspired fear older and considerably less comfortable. There were grudges connected to them that could not be dismissed as recent misunderstandings, and people in both houses knew enough about what had happened to understand exactly why the Lins arriving now was one of the worst developments possible.

The Lord’s avatar hovered above the floor in all his radiant glory, six seraphic wings spread behind his avatar while gold-white light filled the chamber.

Normally that appearance alone would have imposed silence.

Today it only gave Grandpa Maxton something brighter to glare at—

The Lord looked down at him with open accusation: "—and it is thanks to your stupid son that we are in this mess now. Danny Maxton had one job—one job only. Kill Seiryu. That was it. Yet another woman ended up dead in the process, and after you assured all of us that Danny himself would be removed to close the loose ends, somehow he "disappeared" before you could even manage that."

Several Maxtons immediately stiffened, but the Lord was nowhere near finished. "You killed Pemberton when he became inconvenient, didn’t you? You managed that without hesitation. Yet when the person who needs to disappear carries your blood, suddenly we’re listening to stories about "interrupted poison plan" and mysterious rescuers. Do you take us for fools?"

Grandpa Maxton laughed lightly, though absolutely nothing about his expression was amused: "How hypocritical."

He raised one hand and pointed directly at the Lord’s avatar accusingly. "Now you speak? Now you get to fucking announce your displeasure as though you’ve spent years standing above all of this warning us not to make mistakes? You didn’t have a problem with what happened before and that woman dying. Yet now that consequences are knocking on the door, suddenly your seventh sense has returned."

Marcus leaned back slightly and corrected him with shameless satisfaction. "It’s sixth sense, actually."

Grandpa Maxton turned his head and stared at Marcus long enough for several people to hide smiles. If Marcus had not been the Angel Progenitor, the old man might genuinely have crossed the hall and killed him simply to improve the conversation.

He eventually looked back toward the Lord. "You said, and I quote, ’We’ll deal with this when the time for it comes. The important thing is, the Azure Dragon is dead.’ Those were your words. Were they not?"